Allotments 4 All

That's a great contribution, Galina.

By way of lettuce varieties I've been into growing several traditional varieties this year with quite a lot of history and associations with Monticello and Jefferson.
Brown Dutch So this is a traditional heading lettuce, with loose heads and green leaves tinged reddish-brown or bronze. It's documented in British gardening literature by 1731 and was also grown by Jefferson in the early nineteenth century at Monticello where it was valued as a hardy lettuce for autumn sowing and winter harvesting.. It's thought to be Dutch in origin but this is difficult to prove. It was an old favourite in Britain and from there passed to the other side of the Atlantic.  It's particularly suitable for cooler conditions and autumn cultivation with tender leaves and mild flavour.I grew it from some different seed batches I had but they all turned out to similar and true to type.
Tennis Ball[/b]
And again, completing my run of traditional older lettuce grown by Jefferson, there is Tennis Ball. It's a small, compact butterhead lettuce, forming neat, rounded heads of pale green leaves, traditionally described as resembling a tennis ball, again mild, tender and delicate.
It's another eighteenth-century variety, with seed offered by American seedsmen before 1800. Thomas Jefferson grew it at Monticello from 1809 onwards and regarded it as a favourite, noting that it required less care than other lettuces.

Both versions fine here Jan.  Great comparison photos.

We had one of the large squashes here (not an isolated/handpollinated one) develop a soft spot, so need to eat it quickly, instead of the New Zealand Blue I had planned to eat (just in time for its seeds for the circle, before I have to finish packing seed here). 

However, just like with the promised Whangaparaoa Crown, seeds are postponed until next year, not cancelled.  Also gives me the option for adding seeds from a very good looking second isolated/handpollinated fruit that was only harvested very recently for more same-variety diversity.  And as the seeds will now only be harvested (rot spots permitting!) next year, it will have had a long time of post harvest seed ripening. The Old Timey Cornfield pumpkin and the Striato d'Italia courgette are already drying and will go into the circle for this year. 

For some reason the second half of my message isn't showing up except when I press to edit. In case it doesn't reappear, here it is:

Flashy Troutback was selected by Frank Morton from  the traditional German/Austrian variety Forellenschluss, meaning Troutback. He was aiming for a more uniform densely spotted appearance. The result is that the colouring appears early in its development and is particularly bright. So this is a Frank Morton selection from a much older variety. William Woys Weaver in fact described Forellenschluss as a dwarf selection from Spotted Aleppo and dated it back to 1793. Flashy Troutback doesn't seem to have a dwarf habit at all. My seed originally came fro Frank Morton

I tried to compare these two varieties online and came up with the comparison in the above photo which I thought summed up the similarities and differences very well.

I'm contributing two lettuce varieties which are superficially similar. Both are cos/romaine types and both are spotted. Both have some history too.
Spotted Aleppo was brought from Aleppo, Syria, to England in the 17th century and became a popular lettuce in the 18th century. It later crossed the Atlantic and by 1804 it was being offered by Bernard McMahon, the important Philadelphia seedsman who was also associated with Thomas Jefferson.
It apparently became a favourite of the president, Thomas Jefferson, who grew it in his garden at Monticello. The variety survived at Monticello, where the historic vegetable garden still grows it. My seed came from Monticello originally.

Flashy Troutback was selected by Frank Morton from  the traditional German/Austrian variety Forellenschluss, meaning Troutback. He was aiming for a more uniform densely spotted appearance. The result is that the colouring appears early in its development and is particularly bright. So this is a Frank Morton selection from a much older variety. William Woys Weaver in fact described Forellenschluss as a dwarf selection from Spotted Aleppo and dated it back to 1793. Flashy Troutback doesn't seem to have a dwarf habit at all. My seed originally came from Frank Morton

I tried to compare these two varieties online and came up with the comparison in this photo

Fasan is the Swedish word for pheasant.  The Fasan bean originally came from Sesam, which is the Swedish equivalent of the British Heritage Seed Library.  As they have this bean in their collection, suggests that it is a Swedish heritage bean.  Certainly a bean that will thrive in shorter seasons and under cooler conditions.  Dual use as a young green bean, but in the main for shelling. 

My last dwarf bean is Fasan. This is another variety which Galina rescued from the Bohnenatlas collection. Very little is known about its origin except that it was donated from Sweden originally. It's a quite productive bean. I'm a little vague about its eating potential but I would regard it as all-purpose - snap when young, good for shelling and definitely good for attractive dried beans including quite a few with reverse colouring

.

And yes please to the watermelon from me too.

Another dwarf bean from me,Harvester Mangiatutti

I've included this because it's a good productive snap bean. I was given it in a Canadian seed swap and although it has a partly Italian name meaning 'eat all' , it seems to circulate in a small number of Canadian seed companies rather than more widely. There is a rather older US commercial variety called simply Harvester, developed for heavy yield, shipping, processing etc from the late 1950s so it's possible that this was remarketed with an unjustified Italian flavour by the Canadian seed company that seems to have relaunched it more recently.

Oh and yes please to the watermelon Garrett.

So much to look forward to from Jang and Garrett.  Love the double hilum ring on  Slavonski Zeleni Grah.